


I promise

by eams81



Category: Dunkirk (2017)
Genre: Established Relationship, Everyone Is Alive, Fix-It, M/M, alternative ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 14:04:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20583710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eams81/pseuds/eams81
Summary: Collins desperately scanned the faces as the past, even though he knew none of them were the one he was looking for.How I wanted the film to end.





	I promise

The smell of seawater clung to him, and Collins felt the chill in the air pierce through his clothes as the night wind swirled around him. The misery in air danced with the wind as thousands of soldiers brushed past him, walking like zombies and looking like they’d seen a ghost. The filth from their uniforms and the prominent browns and green made his air force blues stand out vividly even in the dark.

Collins desperately scanned the faces as the past, even though he knew none of them were the one he was looking for. In the crowd of faces, there was no one wearing the shearling jacket that he knew smelt like smoke, wood and spice. There was no one with the short brown hair that stuck up in little tufts whenever he removed his cap after flying. Collins tugged at his sleeves as he wrapped his arms around himself, the fabric of his jacket stiff from the saltwater of the sea.

He felt like he knew something bad was going to happen today. He had awoken to the feeling of imminent doom that only grew as the day went on. Collins would give anything to be able to go back to the beginning of the day, sipping at his morning cup of tea. For the first time since he joined the air force, he hadn’t felt right in the air, as if he had known it would have been better to stay on the ground. With the glares and the passing shoves he was receiving from the passing soldiers, some thought that was what he had been doing.

There were more boats undocking, and more and more men coming out from holds which shouldn’t have held so many people. But none of them were him. Collins climbed on top of the crate, looking out among the crowd as he once more searched through them in hopes of finding one face. He wished Farrier had listened to him when he suggested turning back after the older man’s fuel gauge broke. If they had turned back, Collins would have known exactly where they would be; they would be sat in front of the warm fire with the blackout curtains tightly closed in Farriers room on base. His own room was seldom used, and most of his things were intertwined with Farriers belongings. In the privacy of the room, they would have held each-other, and kissed each-other as they had done for many nights before. Collins wished that was where he was, rather than shivering in the cold wind and reliving the events of the day.

Stepping down from the crate, Collins tugged off his lifejacket, exposing the wings on the breast of his coat. His lifejacket was still on his arms as a bitter soldier barged past him, clipping his shoulder as anger filled words were snapped, “Where the hell were you.”

Collins remained stoic, refusing to let the biting response on his tongue escape. He watched the retreating back of the soldier as he joined the army of the walking dead on there way to the waiting train. If he was still the man he had been before the war, back at the beginning of his air force training, the cutting retaliation remark would have already left his tongue. A hand clapping him on his shoulder forced him to turn away from watching the solider walk away. Turning to face the touch, Collins felt his emotions shift and his heart drop as he saw the familiar coat and the man he’d been searching for.

He didn’t care about propriety, nor did he care that he was risking their illegal secret from being known. Collin launched himself forward, wrapping his arms around Farrier so fast that Farrier had to take a small step back to stop them both falling to the ground. “I didn’t see your chute.” Collins breathed into the soft wool of the older man’s jacket, as he allowed himself to hold onto the man for a moment longer than social norms allowed.

“I glided the plane down onto the beach, landed it just before I hit the German’s territory.” Farrier smiled, gently pushing Collins back to a more respectable distance between them. There would be time to console and hold each other but standing in the middle of a crowd of defeated soldiers was not the right one.

“Never scare me like that again. Please,” Collins let his composure break a little, his bottom lip trembling at the thought of how different an outcome it could have been.

“I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> I am in love with this film, and I have only just jumped on this bandwagon. 
> 
> My only wish is that the film could have given me a happier ending for Farrier! So I wrote my little idea, and I just want to embrace the alternative reality where Farrier is the last little shit to get on the last boat out of Dunkirk that day. Followed by Collins punching him repeatedly in the arm for scaring the shit out of him.


End file.
